05-14-2008, 02:36 PM
GGD, it's my understanding (meager though it may be) that many applications need space to write temporary or 'scratch' files, and a drive with too little free space will cause that process to slow down.
Back in the pre-OS-X days, I can remember folks saying that you needed to leave at least 10% of a drive free, or you'd experience slowdowns. Then we used to use utilities like Norton to defragment drives, too—not necessary with OS X, apparently; does the OS handle that automatically?
Seannie, you can protect your Macs from hackers trying to get into the wireless network by using strong encryption on the router, or by eschewing wireless and using an Ethernet wired network. With built-in Mac gigabit capability (you'd need a gigabit router) your network will be MUCH faster than a wireless one, especially if you are transferring or accessing large files over the network.
/Mr Lynn
Back in the pre-OS-X days, I can remember folks saying that you needed to leave at least 10% of a drive free, or you'd experience slowdowns. Then we used to use utilities like Norton to defragment drives, too—not necessary with OS X, apparently; does the OS handle that automatically?
Seannie, you can protect your Macs from hackers trying to get into the wireless network by using strong encryption on the router, or by eschewing wireless and using an Ethernet wired network. With built-in Mac gigabit capability (you'd need a gigabit router) your network will be MUCH faster than a wireless one, especially if you are transferring or accessing large files over the network.
/Mr Lynn